Updated at 2:22 p.m. ET
NEWS BRIEF Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, under fire for the practice by some of his employees to create millions of fake bank and credit-card accounts to collect fees and hit sales targets, told the Senate Banking Committee he accepts “full responsibility for all unethical sales practices.”
But those remarks did little to placate lawmakers from both parties who pointedly criticized the bank and its practices. Here’s Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, who told Stumpf he should resign.
.@SenWarren #WellsFargo CEO: "You should resign. You should give back the money that you took..." pic.twitter.com/aPZViWGJIN
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 20, 2016
Those comments were echoed by Sherrod Brown, the ranking member on the panel. “I was stunned when I learned about the breadth and duration of this fraud,” he said.
Stumpf told lawmakers that “there was no orchestrated effort, or scheme as some have called it, by the company.
“Wrongful sales practices goes entirely against our values, ethics, and culture, and runs counter to our business strategy of helping our customers succeed financially and deepening our relationship with those customers.”
As we reported last week, federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million—the largest fine since the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was founded in 2011—for the practice in which some employees engaged in deceptive practices to hit sales targets. The bank, which admitted no wrongdoing under the deal, also fired 5,300 employees who were involved in the fraudulent practice, but Carrie Tolstedt, who headed the unit that created the fake accounts, will likely walk away with a $125 million golden parachute. That payment, which was part of her contract and agreed to prior to the settlement with CFPB, has been heavily criticized by financial-watchdog groups—and, in theory, the bank can take some of that money back.
